Avid watch collector Jeffrey Kingston’s advice to beginners: ‘Resign yourself to making mistakes’

Collectors – be it watches, handbags or art – often start off with a single purchase, just one item out of curiosity. Somehow, that one item is enough to spark a lifelong obsession.

American watch collector and former antitrust lawyer Jeffrey Kingston fell in love with timepieces “by accident”. In the 1990s, while on holiday in Hong Kong with his wife and another couple who were family friends – one of them was the doctor who had delivered his son – he found himself unexpectedly drawn into the world of watches.

“Our wives wanted to go shopping for clothes, which didn’t interest us at all,” Kingston recalled. So the husbands went watch shopping instead. “I already had a nice watch at the time. I was a pilot on weekends, so I had a chronograph,” said Kingston. “We traipsed around Hong Kong looking at watches and I ended up buying a Blancpain.” 

The watch was a "classic complete calendar moonphase". Intrigued by the movement and how it worked, Kingston began researching online – “this was the early days of the Internet, it wasn’t omnipresent in our lives like it is now,” he noted. His curiosity led him to a website called TimeZone, where he soon ended up becoming an active member of its watch community.

“As you meet more people, you learn new things and you start buying other things,” Kingston said. “How did I build my collection? I made a lot of mistakes. There will always be things you look at and ask yourself, why did I buy that? What was I thinking? And then gradually you learn more and understand what you really like.”

Kingston is a revered fixture in the watchmaking world. After retiring from a successful law career, he now devotes his time to writing and speaking about watches, calling himself “a plant that has been repotted”. He has collaborated with various brands, including Blancpain, to share his knowledge. In addition, Kingston is the co-editor-in-chief of Lettres du Brassus, Blancpain’s in-house magazine.

Kingston also wrote and directed a documentary titled Fifty Fathoms: The History as Told by the Pioneers Who Created It, which goes behind-the-scenes and details the origin of the emblematic Fifty Fathoms. The documentary premiered in 2019.

In May 2025, Kingston was in Singapore to host a series of insightful conversations on Blancpain timepieces for private clients and media. CNA Luxury sat down with the renowned watch collector to discuss his collection, his philosophy, and his advice for budding collectors.

Hi Jeffrey, could you share how big your watch collection is today?

First of all, that’s a state secret (laughs). I have a number of watches. And I will make a confession. Basically every watch collector I know is not monogamous. They don’t just buy from one brand. So I have watches from several brands. I am deeply in love with Blancpain and Breguet and they lead my collection. But I have others.

Is there a watch that you enjoy wearing every day?

I change my watches every day and it also depends on what I’m doing. Is this a day where I have to dress formal? Is this a day where I’m going out with the dogs? Am I skiing today? Because I ski every day during the winter. Today I’m wearing a Blancpain Carrousel Phases de Lune, and I don’t wear this to ski.

Are there any interesting watch trends that are particularly exciting you as a collector?

Watch trends is a little bit like fashion. We went through one trend where watches were getting bigger, but now they’re getting smaller. Thank goodness, I really like that.

There’s another important trend that I wish more brands are doing is refinement. Unfortunately, there are some brands that are still clinging on to the "bling" stuff. Bling is awful and it’s still around but at least the trend now is headed towards more refined, elegant watches. I’m a classicist and I don’t like fad watches. I want watches to reflect good craftsmanship and wonderful workmanship.   

What mistakes do you think collectors make when building their collection?

First of all, lesson one, when you start out, you are going to make a lot of mistakes. There’s no way to avoid that. Without making mistakes, you will neither understand what real quality or value is in a watch, nor will you understand yourself and what you will really like in a watch. So resign yourself to making mistakes. Lesson two, don't buy watches because you got a deal. You will make more mistakes that way. And please don’t buy watches to resell them. There’s probably no group of watch buyers more despised than the flippers.

Over the years, how has your watch collecting philosophy changed?

I think I’ve become even more classical in my taste, and also more demanding in the details of a watch before I really want it. I mean really demanding. Sometimes a watch can look pretty good at first glance, but then I’ll notice something that irritates me and that’s the end of it.

I am very demanding when it comes to finishing. I want to see the craft in making the watch and I want to be intrigued by its mechanics: How it’s made, how it’s designed and from an engineering point of view, how does it work? Does it show me that people really thought through what makes a movement great?

If these qualities aren’t there in a watch, I’m not interested. Another thing you learn over time, after seeing a lot of watches, is that there’s a big difference between saying, “That’s a pretty good watch”, and saying, “I absolutely have to have it.” That’s a huge leap.

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